 OVERVIEW OF
TYPICAL NATIONAL
MEASURES
(laws,regulations,
policies, programmes)
RELEVANT FOR THE
PROTECTION OF
TRADITIONAL
KNOWLEDGE IN THE
CONTEXT OF
FARMERS´RIGHTS
 (Presented by Juliana
Santilli)
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 Regulate the use, production and sale of seeds
 Tend to privilege “formal” seed systems
 How Seed Laws address the following questions:
 Do they recognize that TK is an essential component of
local/ local/traditional /creole varieties?
 And that TK is embodied in the biological material
(seeds)?
 Do Seed Laws create legal spaces for TK and seeds of
local/traditional /creole varieties?
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 What impacts Seed Laws have on TK?
 Are traditional/local/creole seeds exempt from official
registration?
 (Seed laws may apply only to farmers´varieties, or may
regulate only seeds produced by the formal system, and not
seeds sold or exchanged at the local level. In other
countries, only seeds that are sold must be registered, or
only seeds of certain species need to be registered)
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 Is there a special registry for traditional/local/creole seeds
?
 Do traditional/local/creole seeds have to meet uniformity
and stability criterias to be registered?
 (India: only the “novelty requirement” is not necessary for
farmers´varieties)
 Special laws aimed at protecting TK ? Protection against
misappropriation or from disappearing?
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 Policies/programmes that encourage dialogue/cooperation
between “scientific” knowledge and TK (such as
participatory plant breeding)?
 Initiatives to document TK, such as inventories, catalogues,
registries...
 Community gene banks and networks of exchange between
farmers and local communities
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 Most countries have signed UPOV 1978 or UPOV 1991.
 What impact do they have on TK?
 Are IPR Laws restricting the rights of farmers to use farm-
saved seed and to exchange seeds among themselves?
 And the right of farmers to use commercial varieties as
sources of variation in breeding,
 (extension of the “breeder´s privilege” to farmers?)
 IPRs used to protect TK?.
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 Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the
Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their
Utilization – TK;
 Recalls the relevance of Article 8(j) of the Convention as it
relates to traditional knowledge associated with genetic
resources and the fair and equitable sharing of benefits
arising from the utilization of such knowledge;
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 Notes the interrelationship between genetic resources and
TK, their inseparable nature for indigenous and local
communities, the importance of TK knowledge for the
conservation of biological diversity and the sustainable use
of its components, and for the sustainable livelihoods of
these communities;
 Recognizes the diversity of circumstances in which TK
associated with genetic resources is held or owned by
indigenous and local communities;
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 Mindful that it is the right of indigenous and local
communities to identify the rightful holders of their TK
associated with genetic resources, within their
communities;
 Further recognizes the unique circumstances where TK
associated with genetic resources is held in countries,
which may be oral, documented or in other forms,
reflecting a rich cultural heritage relevant for conservation
and sustainable use of biological diversity;
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 The Protocol applies to TKtional knowledge associated
with genetic resources within the scope of the Convention
and to the benefits arising from the utilization of such
knowledge.
 Each Party shall take measures, as appropriate, with the
aim of ensuring that TK associated with genetic resources
that is held by indigenous and local communities is
accessed with the prior and informed consent or approval
and involvement of these indigenous and local
communities, and that mutually agreed terms have been
established.
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 GLOBAL
MULTILATERAL
BENEFIT-SHARING
MECHANISM
 Parties shall consider the need for and modalities of a
global multilateral benefit-sharing mechanism to address
the fair and equitable sharing of benefits derived from the
utilisation of genetic resources and traditional knowledge
associated with genetic resources that occur in
transboundary situations or for which it is not possible to
grant or obtain prior informed consent.
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 The benefits shared by users of genetic resources and
traditional knowledge associated with genetic resources
through this mechanism shall be used to support the
conservation of biological diversity and the sustainable use
of its components globally
 TRANSBOUNDARY COOPERATION : Where the same
traditional knowledge associated with genetic resources is
shared by one or more indigenous and local communities
in several Parties, those Parties shall endeavour to
cooperate, as appropriate, with the involvement of the
indigenous and local communities concerned.
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 Implementation of CBD (artigo 8 j) and bilateral contracts
between providers and users of genetic resources and TK:
 Access to local/traditional varieties that incorporate TK
 Access to varieties of exotic species that have developed
“distinctive properties” (through natural selection and/or
through local management)
 Access to resources and TK that are shared by several local
communities: when it is difficult to identify a “provider”.
Ecocultural funds??
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 Initiatives to support farmers’ efforts to manage and
conserve on-farm their PGR;
 Initiatives to promote in situ conservation of wild crop
relatives , including in protected areas, by supporting, inter
alia, the efforts of indigenous and local communities;
 Initiatives to strengthen the development of varieties
particularly adapted to social, economic and ecological
conditions (such as participatory plant breeding)
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 Crops (cultivated plants)
are:
 “cultural artifacts”;
“biological in their nature,
but cultural in their
essence” (Sauer and
Emperaire)
 Registry of intangible
cultural heritage
 (UNESCO Convention on
the Safeguard of Intangible
CH)
Brazil:
Registry of the Indigenous
agricultural system of Alto
Rio Negro (Brazilian
Amazon)
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 (UNESCO World Heritage




Convention, 1972)
1992: “cultural landscapes”
Examples:
Cuba: Archaeological
Landscape of the First
Coffee Plantations in the
South-East of Cuba
Hungary: Tokaj Wine
Region Historic Cultural
Landscape
 Philippine: Rice Terraces
of the Cordilleras
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 1) Sierra de Manantlán Biosphere Reserve (Mexico),
 Manantlán
Institute of Ecology and Biodiversity
Conservation (Imecbio), of Guadalajara University, and
CIMMYT: teosinte
 2) Parque de la Papa (Peru): Quechua and Aymara
Indigenous Peoples and the ngo Andes
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 A GIAHS is a living, evolving system of human communities
in an intricate relationship with their territory and
agricultural landscape.
 It includes the recognition of traditional knowledge systems .
 ( FAO, GEF, UNDP, UNESCO, IFAD, UNU)
 Pilot systems: Andean Agriculture (Peru); Chiloé
Agriculture (Chile); Ifugao Rice Terraces (Philippines)
 Oases of the Maghreb (Algeria, Tunisia); Rice-Fish
Agriculture (China); Hani Rice Terraces System
(China) ; Wannian traditional rice culture system
(China) ; Pastoral and Upland Agroecosystem (Kenya,
Tanzania)
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